Top Ten Reasons Why You Should Be Watching Lakers-Suns

10) Pace. Tonight's game was the best one for each team on defense. Both teams scored over 100 points. Basketball is a game of runs and flow, and this series has had both.

9) Heroes And Villains. If you hate the NBA for its star system, and don't think that benches matter, this series takes that lie out back and shoots it in the head. Nearly every member of both teams have had good and bad moments, and there's never been a moment where you were certain who was going to come through. You could be hating and loving just about everyone on the floor, depending on what club you are rooting for.

8) Comedy. These games have been on TNT, aka the only network that should be allowed to televise the NBA playoffs. You get Craig Sager's visible from space suits, Steve Nash hobnobbing with Space Ghost, Ron Artest making Sager say "Bensonhurst" in the middle of his intereview, Alvin Gentry vomiting during the game and gutting it out... and we're not even discussing the post-game bull sessions with Reggie Miller, Kenny Smith, Ernie Johnson and the immortal Chuckster. Despite the fact that these games go late, I haven't been able to stay away from the full post-mortem, no matter who wins or loses. Kudos.

7) Analysis. Marv Albert and Doug Collins aren't perfect -- the latter's fixation on closing out quarters is positively savant-ish, and does not fill me, as a Sixers fan, with confidence for next year -- but they are miles ahead of their World Wide Lemur competition.

6) Redemptions. In crunch time tonight, Ron Artest went from the most stupid man ever who single-handedly killed his team to the man who saved the season at the buzzer. In the same game, Channing Frye was the second best player on the Suns, after spending most of the first four games looking like the worst player in the Association. If you like your games with a side of story, this series is for you.

5) Slovenian Beef! Suns back-up point guard Goran Dragic and Lakers backup shootuing guard Sasha Vujacic have a visceral dislike for each other. Neither will say why, and both are prone to taking charges and looking like they've been shot on contact. If they ever throw down, it will be the whitest fight in the history of the Association, and the closest thing you will see on a basketball court to a hockey goalie fight. Plus, it allows for one of the greatest fantasy basketball team names ever. SLOVENIAN BEEF!

4) Insanity. Listen to a Testy interview, or watch him get dressed up like he's about to do the Humpty Dance afterwards. Take a good look at the Sideshow Bob mullet that is Robin Lopez. Consider Adam Morrison's homeless cheerleader in a suit act on the sidelines, or Louie Admundson, the backup Suns center who seems to be trying to one-up Lopez for hair humor. And it just keeps coming.

3) The coaching battle. On one side, you've got the greatest coach by the numbers in NBA history, with an unmatched abiity to work the refs both in and out of game. On the other, you've got a guy who won't leave a game despite heaving, who seems to be teaching his team elaborate zone defenses in the days off, and isn't afraid to play bench players in crunch time if they are winning the game for him. For anyone who thinks the Association's coaches don't matter, watch this series and change your mind.

2) Not everyone is into this. To watch this series from the East Coast means grinding out weekday games until midnight, with nearly every game in doubt until late in the fourth quarter. Casual fans aren't going the extra mile, and will watch just the Finals, if anything. They will have no idea that they missed the series of the year.

1) The home team hasn't lost yet. Which means that it could be going to a Game Seven for the right to go the Finals, and a potential game for the ages. So why miss it?